Owner: pomomusings URL:http://cleave.blogs.com Join Date: Sat, 26 Aug 2006 15:43:28 -0500 Rating:1 Site Description: journeying toward an open & progressive theology. musings on postmodernism, progressive theology, emergent & mainline churches, life of a married seminary student and other random things from daily life. Site statistics:Click here
Sponsored Post: ReviewMe 2006-11-11 04:16:01 There are many designers out there who are talking about how to increase hits and search engine traffic to blogs and sites nowadays. Questions about ads and blog-promotion might seem pointless to some, but let's face it: for many of us who write blogs, we generally like it when we know people are reading it. So a little blog-promotion is never a bad thing. However, many people today are using blogs and Content Management Systems (like Wordpress) to create communities, share knowledge on web design & development, get the word out about products, call for social action and justice, etc. So allowing your site or product to get good web-exposure is very important.
Enter ReviewMe. ReviewMe allows companies and organizations who want to get bloggers to review their products to buy bloggers reviews to share information about their products or services. Over the past few years, my blog audience has grown significantly, and as everyone knows, it is pretty diverse. So it's not unusual for aut
The search is over... 2006-11-12 03:30:01 So, the search is over and I am now the proud new owner of a Raleigh Passage 3.5 Hybrid (seen above). It's not as cool as my wife's bike, but...I'm okay with that. I pimped it out a bit by getting a fancier saddle and a computer (showing mph, mileage, clock, etc), so I feel good about it.
Firefox 2.0 Bug 2006-11-13 04:42:26 Firefox
. A browser I love with some great extensions (like the Web Developer one). But I upgrade to 2.0 and all of a sudden, I get a crappy bug. It happens pretty often. This little white box that will pop up at random times when I hover over a tab. And it won't go away - it stays there even when you switch to other Applications, and it won't leave until you close Firefox. Anyone, any ideas?
Oh, my alma mater... 2006-11-13 13:00:00 You ever have one of those days when you hear some news about your alma mater
and you think to yourself, "Damn I'm so proud of that school" or "Wow - isn't that just swell of (fill in the blank of your alma mater
)." Yah, I suppose certain schools produce more of those moments than others. And then there are those times when you hear some news about your alma mater and you think to yourself, "What in the hell?" or "Damn, did I really go there?"
I had one of those moments this week. A great friend of mine recently told me about how a few Whitworth College students celebrated Reformation Day 2006. They created their own version of the 95 Theses and posted over 300 of them around Gonzaga University, a Jesuit school (most famous around the nation because of their basketball team, the Gonzaga Bulldogs). Anyway, I did a little research and found an article here at the Gonzaga Bulletin, which details what happened and has a quote from our President, Bill Robinson, as he apologizes publicly
Taybeh Dark and Remembering 2006-11-14 02:58:40 Palestine Beer Festival Originally uploaded by velvetart.
As I was writing about hookahs last month, I began to think about one of the other things that I miss about Palestine. Taybeh Dark. It really is an absolutely amazing beer. We've been drinking some good Jamaican Red Stripe around the Walker Cleaveland home recently, which I really like.
But...it's nothing compared to Taybeh Dark. Has anyone else ever had it? The Light isn't bad, but it's really the Dark that is just heavenly.
During the summer of 2005 when I was in Palestine, we would often end our evenings at al-Hema (The Tent), an open-air Bedouin-styled restaurant just outside of Bethlehem in Beit Sahour. We would get barbecue, hookahs (two apples was always the best) and Taybeh Dark and sit around with either our group or a group of Palestinians we hung out with and enjoy our evenings.
You can read a little about the Taybeh Brewing Company here (though it's an older article, written during the Palestinia Read more:Remembering
2007 Emergent Theological Conversation & Mainline Emergent/s 2006-11-15 03:27:37
I'm sure you've already heard about it, but the EmergentTheological
Philosophical Conversation
has just been announced today on the Emergent Village blog here. April 14-16 at Eastern University in Philadelphia...with John Caputo. Fabulous topic: "What Would Jesus Deconstruct? A Conversation about Justice." Sarah and I have a fair amount of traveling we're hoping to do in the spring, but I'm hoping it might work out that I could attend.
However, I'll definitely be at Mainline Emergent/s at Columbia Theological Seminary, January 30 - February 1, and hope to see many of you there. Does anyone know for sure if they are going? I will be co-leading a seminar with Karen Sloan entitled "Practice and Presbyterianism: Emergence as Re-formation." Anyway, some great events coming up. Thanks Emergent.
Only $8 to manage your prayer life! 2006-11-15 13:00:00
Having a hard time remembering all of those people who you said you'd pray for? Forgetting which prayers God answered and which prayers God just hasn't gotten around to yet? Well, those are just a few of the problems Ben Rugg, creator of the Echo Prayer Manager, had:"Well I don't know about you, but I promise a lot of people that I'll
pray for them. And of course what generally happens is that I pray a
couple times and then forget. Once I tried making a list of everything
I wanted to pray about, but that just overwhelmed me. There were almost
a hundred people and issues on the list, and I felt like I could never
pray for all of them.Echo is a tool to help you pray more diligently. Pray for your
coworkers, your friends, your family, your church, your country, your
issues. And thank God continually."So there you have it. The Echo Prayer Manager. Sign up today to get a more organized prayer life! You even get the first 30 days for free!
Stickin' it to "the Man" 2006-11-15 15:00:00 I've written before about Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill Church. I've worshipped at Mars Hill before, with my cousin and his wife who attend the church. My best friend (who was my Best Man at my wedding) also is very involved with the church - so I know there are some great people who attend Mars Hill. But I have serious issues with both Mark Driscoll and his theology, which is really no different than any other Southern Baptist, very fundamentalist version of Christianity.
In the past few years, one of the biggest critiques of Mark is his perspective on women and the church. Most recently, he has been called a misogynist because of his rhetoric against women and desire for an uber-masculinity for Christian men. One post at Off the Map blog, Conversation at the Edge, had a post with over 300 comments.
At any rate, there is one group that has had enough and decided to publicly let Driscoll and Mars Hill Church know that they find Mark's preaching misogynistic, hurtful and oppressive t
SBL/AAR Annual Meeting 2006-11-16 13:00:00 Tonight Sarah and I fly to Washington DC for the SBL/AAR Annual
Meeting. We are both working at the Employee Information Services Center at the meeting. It's based in the Independence Ballroom in the Grand Hyatt at Washington Center in case you're interested in tracking me or Sarah down during the Meeting. I'm working a fair amount, but SBL is hooking us up, so I'm not going to complain. I'll also be catching a few seminars with people like Karen Armstrong, Diana Eck, Jack Caputo, Clark Pinnock, AKMA and Serene Jones. I'll also definitely be at the AM19-106 Emergent session with Pete Rollins, Brian McLaren and Phyllis Tickle:What Is the Emergent Conversation and Why Does It Matter?11/19/20064:00 PM to 6:30 PMRoom: Senate - Renaissance MayflowerThis
panel discussion with Brian McLaren, Phyllis Tickle, and Peter Rollins
will focus on questions generated by the Emergent Church movement: Are
Emergent Churches to the post-Reformation what Protestantism was to the
Great Reformation? Wi
Find us at SBL/AAR 2006-11-17 12:00:00 Sarah and I are in Washington DC for the 2006 Annual Meeting of AAR/SBL. We're staying at the Grand Hyatt and we're both attending sessions, hanging out and working at EIS/Career Center. EIS is located in the Grand Hyatt, on the Independence Level if you want to stop by and say hi. You can reach me through email or on my cell phone at six-zero-nine, nine-three-three, four-thousand.
Dining with Terrorists 2006-11-17 13:00:00 {or a contemporary rendering of The Parable of the Wedding Banquet, Matthew 22.1-14}January 30th, 2010
It had been four years since Hamas won the democratic Palestinian elections in 2006, and Ehud Olmert couldn't believe what was going to happen that evening. Over the past few years, the Palestinian parties of Hamas and Fatah had been cooperating more and more with each other and had actually come together to form an alliance which was becoming less polarized and militant. While there were still the violent resistance movements within each party, Hamas and Fatah had been slowly moving themselves further away from those groups and becoming more interested in and involved with the Middle East peace process.
And it was going to happen that evening. Ehud Olmert, along with Palestinian Mahmoud Abbas and other leaders of Hamas and Fatah, had begun to plan an International Peace Conference. The conference was set to begin that evening, and it was going to begin in true Middle Eastern sty Read more:Dining
, Terrorists
SBL/AAR Day 1 2006-11-18 04:51:02
Day 1 is over and we had fun. Check out our photos on Flickr here. Had a meeting this morning, but then we got out and went to the National Cathedral...walked a ton today and our feet our hurting today (maybe we're getting old?!?!?) We hung out at the Convention Center a bit today and were a bit overwhelmed by the Exhibitor Hall, where there were many, many books at 40-50% off. If you know either of us, especially my wife, this is dangerous territory. So I'm sure we're coming home with some books. Saw some PTS folk today (Iain Torrance, Dr. Van Huyssteen) and I'm sure we'll run into more tomorrow. We also were walking behind Wally B (Brueggemann; but Sarah likes to call him Wally B) outside of the Convention Center. We worked at EIS (Career Center) tonight and I'm sure it will be more hectic tomorrow, but...oh well. More friends show up tomorrow...more work, hitting up a few sessions...things are good.
Someone else loves Duncan 2006-11-19 13:00:00 My former-client (I helped her design her site) and new blog-friend, Kristin Noelle, loved David James Duncan
's book "God Laughs and Plays." She wrote a beautiful review of the book that I recommend to you. You should also check out reviews of the book done by Makeesha and Dave. Read more:Someone else
Revisiting Text Link Ads 2006-11-20 13:00:00
I posted back in August about Text Link Ads, but I wanted to give those of you who missed that post the chance to sign up. I've been thoroughly impressed by this company. I always get almost-immediate email response from their tech support and the president of the company. They've continued to make their user interface even more web 2.0/web-friendly than before.
So, if you are interested in finding easy, easy ways to start making some money through your website or blog, sign up today with Text Lind Ads [btw, this post was NOT a paid post - it's simply because I think this is a quality company].
SBL/AAR Day 4: Will Derrida and I ever be friends? 2006-11-20 17:47:39
I don't know. I mean, I'd like to think so, but it's not looking good. A few years ago, I was going to write a paper for a class on Pseudo-Dionysius and was going to take a look at the apophatic (negative) theology within in Dionysius' "Mystical Theology" and compare that to Derrida's negative theology and implications of that for Emergent. So I bought a few Derrida books (Derrida for Dummies - that kind). I went out to grab a beer with Tony Jones as he gave me a 45-min Derrida 101 introduction. I hung out for a few hours with a Jean-Luc Marion & Derrida scholar who came to hang out with our Dionysius class at Princeton. And I even tried reading Derrida.
And it just didn't work. A few days into the actual reading of Derrida, I ditched him. Tossed him out, just like that. Dropped him hard.
Since then, I've tried to read a bit here and there, but...no luck.
So today, as I was about to go to hear Jim Wallis and Mark Taylor (from Princeton) talk about God's Politics, I thought
SBL/AAR Day 2/3 & What is Emergent? 2006-11-20 17:43:45
Days 2 and 3 brought quite a few hours of working at EIS and running into some fun folks like AKMA, Matthew, Jake, Justin, Myles and Sarah. I was able to catch up with two good friends from Princeton (Kellen & Dan) and Sarah and I ran into a lot of people last night at the Princeton Seminary Party.
Yesterday, I finally made it to a session, "What is Emergent
?" Brian McLaren, Phyllis Tickle and Pete Rollins (pictured above) led a lively and packed discussion about Emergent and its role in the church and in theological discourse. The day before, a friend asked me why Emergent still needs to have seminars entitled "What is Emergent?" He said, "You know, all you guys have to do is put out a Press Release and then you can move on!" To some degree, I agree. Since I've been involved in this conversation for around 3.5 years, it does start to get a little 'old' to go to sessions that seem to rehash much of the same things...but as was clear yesterday, there are still plenty people who a
SBL/AAR Days 2-4: The whole truth. 2006-11-20 19:28:03 I didn't mention this on the previous day's post...guess I wasn't sure how to. But Sarah did on her blog. We've spent quite a few days this week trying to figure out how the Walker Cleaveland marriage handles (or rather, doesn't handle) conferences. I am an odd mix of introvert and extrovert, and I do get a lot of energy from large crowds, seeing friends (new and old ones), networking, etc. So...I haven't been the best husband this weekend. Example? I forgot to introduce my wife to someone.
Sarah doesn't. In fact, her post was entitled: Conferences:Marriage::Pineapple:Pizza. I didn't get it at first, but then I realized that she really doesn't like pineapple on her pizza. At all.
So...I guess the question I have is for those who have dealt with this before, whether it's conferences or something else? How have you navigated these types of differences and situations in your marriage?
Cribbage: Who knew? 2006-11-21 14:00:00
Sarah decided to teach me cribbage last week. I agreed to it, not really getting all that excited about learning another game in which she would kick my ass, as is the case with most of the games we play. So we started. I'm not sure who won the first game, but then it started to click for me. And I won, and won, and won again. It got to be a little frustrating for Sarah, I think, but eventually I had 8 games to her 1 or 2 games. It was looking to be a decisive victory. However, as you can see from above, she fought back a few games, and we finished with Adam: 10, Sarah: 5. She fought back, but it wasn't enough. Adam is currently the Cribbage Champ at the Walker Cleavelands.
Update: We've currently started Round 2 and Sarah is up two games to none. However, my first hand on our last game turned out to be a 36 point hand! How is that for high hand!
The Walker Cleavelands Enter a New Era 2006-11-22 17:51:25
There it is. The 2007 Toyota Yaris, 5-Speed Manual with Power Doors, Windows, Locks, Cruise Control and iPod Hookup. 34/40 MPG. Flint Mica. Nice big trunk. It's really a hot little car. And it's ours. Finally. After looking all over the Atlanta-area and getting the run-around from way too many dealers and lame salespeople. So we're off right now to Birmingham to Limbaugh Toyota to pick up our little baby. Maybe we'll name her... Read more:Walker
, New Era
Hubbyblogger? Mommyblogger? 2006-11-25 20:14:36
[Here goes the 5th(!) post in a row filed under Married Life...goodness]
Sarah and I have been enjoying some good time with friends recently. One of the highlights of our time in DC was getting to get together with our friend Jake and heading over to Jen Lemen's house for dinner. It was great to be able to hang out with Jen and her husband Dave, their kids Madeleine and Carter and their neighbors Nick and Jess. It was a wonderful night of wonderful food and lots of great wine. Just good to be friends old and new friends.
We celebrated Thanksgiving with our good friend Jeff and then last night our friends Andy & Amanda came over. Andy was a good friend from high school and we've kept in touch since then. They're a fun couple and we played a rousing game of cribbage...and yours truly won. Just barely. I beat Sarah by 1 point, only because I got to count my hand first (and I'll stop right there because it's a bit of a sore subject in the Walker Cleaveland household right now). Dur
StumbleUpon 2006-11-27 01:58:37 I've just spent the last hour checking out some pretty cool sites thanks to StumbleUpon
. Be careful because it's a bit addicting. Basically you sign up and choose what types of sites you're interested in by categories (tags) and then you just click STUMBLE! and it takes you to a bunch of very random, but very cool, sites. Here are just a few sites that I found today:
Blogmusik: Your own virtual iPod
Flickr Related Tag Browser: Very nice app for browsing through Flickr photos
Earthlights: Satellite photo of the Earth at night...pretty cool.
I'm Not a Look-a-Like: Photos of people who are not related but look very similar
Apple TV Ads: TV ads that Apple has done, including the very first Apple commercial
Pete Rollins at Princeton Theological Seminary 2006-11-27 13:00:00
Pete Rollins
is continuing on his US Speaking Tour and coming to PrincetonTheologicalSeminary
this week. There will be a number of times to be able to listen to him speak and dialogue with him.
Wed, Nov 29th: Pub Conversation at Charlie Brown's on Rt 1 @ 8pm with the Princeton Emergent Cohort
Thurs, Nov 30th: Informal Lunch Conversation in PTS Dining Hall
Thurs, Nov 30th: Lecture and Q&A Session in Stuart Hall from 7-9pm
Fri, Dec 1st: Pete will be speaking to Dr. Stacy Johnson's The Reign of God class at 1.30pm
As I've mentioned before, Pete's book "How (Not) to Speak of God" is brilliant and probably the most important book for the emerging church put out yet. His combination of theological and philosophical discourse, combined with practical examples of how such a deeply mystical theology gets worked out....it's just great.
If you are in the Princeton area - I strongly urge you to take advantage of getting the chance to hear Pete speak. From just hearing him at AAR/S
Bookstore Men on Campus: The Men of Columbia Theological Seminary 2006-12-01 03:35:42
The ColumbiaTheologicalSeminary
bookstore, an independent bookstore, has put together an "independent, unsanctioned, and somewhat underground calendar" for 2007. It's amazing. Bill Brown, Chuck Campbell, Walter Brueggemann, Rodger Nishioka...and a shirtless Dr. George Stroup (which you can almost see in the "M" above. If you are interested in ordering one, you can contact the Bookstore
at 404.687.4550 or email them at bookstore@ctsnet.edu. Below you can see a few of the months for your viewing pleasure.
Read more:Campus
Men in Ministry Manly Mountain Retreat 2006-12-01 17:00:00 I'm off to North Georgia this weekend for the retreat for my Men in Ministry
class. We're spending the weekend in a place that is supposed to be absolutely gorgeous...mountains, waterfalls, hikes, poker..."man time." The retreat center is supposed to be great...it's called the Come Rest Awhile Retreat Center. I'm a little intrigued about their description of the place:The Come Rest Awhile Retreat Center was designed and built principally to provide a place for clergy and other soldiers in God's army to come apart and rest awhile.Hmm. Not so down with the idea of becoming a soldier, but....should be a good retreat. Pictures will be forthcoming... Read more:Manly
, Mountain
Send SMS Messages through iChat 2006-12-04 13:00:00 FYI. "With today's release of AIM4.6b1.1131, the capability has been added to allow AIM users to send SMS
messages to mobile phones. All you do is type the message you want to send as an SMS into a new IM window and change the screenname field to +16175551212. Replace 6175551212 with the phone number of the SMS-capable mobile phone. The "+1" is the country code, which is required; however, I don't think AOL supports non-US numbers yet, but they do plan to.
To utilize this cool feature in iChat, simply type Shift-Command-N for a "New Chat with Person," and enter the phone number in the above format. When you send the message, you'll receive confirmation from AOL that it was sent."
LOST: The Addiction 2006-12-05 06:07:53
Sarah and I haven't been as vocal about our addiction to LOST (well, I'm addicted to LOST, Sarah likes it, but 24 still holds a special place in her heart) as we were about 24. But, in the past month or so, we've finished the first two seasons of LOST and we're looking forward to watching the 6 episodes we missed from season 3 on TV.
After the first episode, Sarah and I looked at each other and kind of shrugged our shoulders...."Eh..." It didn't really do it for me. But as is probably the case with these shows - when you watch a few more episodes, and then a few more...you eventually do get a little addicted. I think my favorite character on the show is Sawyer. Even though he came off like an ass in the beginning, I think he's been my favorite all along. Looking forward to the next season...
Google Analytics 2006-12-06 17:50:18
Why oh why have I not been using GoogleAnalytics
before just the past few weeks? While we were hanging out with Jen and Dave Lemen last month, Jen showed me all about Google Analytics
. It's pretty amazing, and probably (unfortunately) a lot more accurate than Typepad ever was for my stats. I like the differentiation between unique visits and pageviews, although it's a little unfortunate that over 80% of people who visit this site, stay here for less than 10-20 seconds. Yup. But it is quite the amazing statistics profile of your website/blog. If you haven't checked it out, you really sign up and start getting probably the most accurate stats about your site out there.
Future Graduates of Princeton Theological Seminary: You'd hire these guys, right? 2006-12-07 01:17:31 (My friend Don...as Burt...!!! Photo taken by Joshua Cleveland)
There are days that I miss Princeton
more than others. It's been good to do a year away, and I'm really looking forward to going back next year. Today is one of those days when I really remember why Princeton TheologicalSeminary
is so special. Today at Princeton was Burt Reynolds Day. Guys on campus (including some faculty & staff) spend the fall growing out their facial hair and on one day in December, shave off everything except (normally) a mustache (although I see some really creative stuff in the photos). Girls are normally not a huge fan of the lead-up to the process - especially if you're dating one of those guys who really only has some nice pre-pubescent peach fuzz (no offense...that's me too!).
Anyway, enjoy my buddy Josh's photos here. Read more:Future
, Graduates
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